The Diocese of Đà Lat () is a Latin

suffragan diocese A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandr ...

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church in the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian churches, including those of both Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity, that have traditional hierarchical structures. An ecclesiastical province consist ...

of the Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Saigon in southern

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, yet depends on the missionary

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. Its

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

episcopal see is Cathedral of Saint Nicholas of Bari, in the southern city of

Da Lat Da Lat, or Dalat (; ), is the capital of Lâm Đồng Province and the largest city of the Central Highlands (Vietnam), Central Highlands region in Vietnam. The city is located above sea level on the Langbiang Plateau. Da Lat is one of the mos ...

Lâm Đồng Province Lâm is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Lin in Mandarin and Im in Korean. Lam is the anglicized variation of the surname Lâm. Lam is also a commonly held surname of Cantonese speakers of Chinese descent. Large populations ...

, Central Highlands. Its present Bishop is Dominic Nguyễn Văn Mạnh, since September 16, 2019.

Statistics and extent

As per 2014, it pastorally served 368,487 Catholics (27.8% of 1,325,000 total) on 9,764 km² in 87 parishes and 16 missions with 259 priests (143 diocesan, 116 religious), 1,413 lay religious (501 brothers, 912 sisters) and 69 seminarians. Many of its faithful belong to ethnic minorities.

History

* The bishopric was created on November 24, 1960, as Diocese of Đà Lat / Ðàlạt (Tiếng Việt) / 大叻 (正體中文) / Dalaten(sis) (Latin), on territories split off from the then Apostolic Vicariate of Saigon and the then Apostolic Vicariate of Kontum * On 22 June 1967 it lost territory to establish the Diocese of Ban Mê Thuôt.

Ordinaries

Coadjutor Bishops * Bishop Pierre Nguyễn Văn Nhơn (later Cardinal) (1991.10.11 – 1994.03.23) * Bishop Dominic Nguyễn Văn Mạnh (2017.04.08 – 2019.09.14)

Other secular clergy who became bishops

* Paul Nguyễn Văn Hòa (priest here until 1968), appointed Bishop of Phan Thiết in 1975 and shortly after Bishop of Nha Trang (later President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Việt Nam) * Paul Bùi Văn Đọc, appointed Bishop of Mỹ Tho in 1999, later Coadjutor Archbishop of Hồ Chi Minh City, and subsequently succeeded as well as President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Việt Nam * Joseph Võ Đức Minh, appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Nha Trang in 2005 and subsequently succeeded * Joseph Nguyễn Đức Cường, appointed Bishop of Thanh Hóa in 2018

References

Sources and external links